About “Swimming Pools (Drank)”

On this lead single from good kid, m.A.A.d city, Kendrick addresses the psychological connection between peer pressure and alcoholism. What sounds like a club anthem is actually an introspective take on the social pressure and self-defeating attitudes that drive people to drink.

What better way to make something universal than to speak about drinking? I’m coming from a household where you had to make a decision—you were either a casual drinker or you were a drunk. That’s what that record is really about, me experiencing that as a kid and making my own decisions.

What has Kendrick Lamar said about this song?

That’s another record going back to the influence of the people around me and the household I grew up in. Each track flows into skits that really breaks down the understanding so that song goes into another skit.

I wanted to do something that felt good, but had a meaning behind it at the same time. Really bringing that mainstream world to us, rather than a rapper with content along to the nation. I wanted to do something that’s universal to everybody but still true to myself.

What better way to make something universal than to speak about drinking? I’m coming from a household where you had to make a decision—you were either a casual drinker or you were a drunk. That’s what that record is really about, me experiencing that as a kid and making my own decisions.